REPORT 



THE CONDITION AND PROGRESS OF THE U. S, NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 DURING THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1890. 



BY 



G. Brown Goode, 

 Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution, in charge of the National Museum. 



A.— GE jJERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



In January, 1847, the first Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, after mauy weeks of consultation and deliberation over the 

 plans for its organization, unanimously voted the following resolution: 



Resolved, That it is the intention of the act of Congress, and in accord- 

 ance unth the design of Mr. Smith son, as expressed in his will, that one of 

 the principal modes of executing the act and the trust, is the accumulation 

 of collections of specimens and objects of natural history and of elegant art, 

 and the gradual formation of a library of valuable icorks pertaining to all 

 departments of human knowledge, to the end, that a copious store-house of 

 materials of science, literature, and art may be provided, ichich shall ex- 

 cite and diffuse the love of learning among men, and shall assist the original 

 investigations and efforts of those who may devote themselves to the pursuit 

 of any branch of knowledge.* 



This was a high ideal for the future National Museum, but it is one 

 which it has been year after year more closely approaching, and it is 

 hoped that the present report will show that the work accomplished 

 during the fiscal year of 1889-90 has brought us still nearer to its 

 realization. 



After the death of Professor Bairtl, in 1887, the Museum passed 

 from under the direction of the mind by which its policy had been 

 planned for many years. If his biography could be properly written, 

 it would include a full history of the Museum as well as of the Fish 

 Commission, and in minor degree of the Smithsonian Institution itself, 

 for as Secretary and Assistaut Secretary he was associated with nearly 

 every phase of its activity during thirty-seven of its forty-one years of 



Keport of Committee on Organization, p. 20. 



